Sometimes you just need HOME!

I was having a rough day a couple weeks ago and I called my mom crying saying I just wanted to come home. I quickly booked a ticket home for a few days. It was much needed! I was so happy to just spend time with my family. They all took very good care of me and I felt much better by the time I left. 

My first stop of course was to see these 3!

 Parker decided he liked me! FINALLY! He never will take a bottle or snuggle with me. Well no one else was around so he really had no choice! We got in two naps together that day.

 Haddley had her tonsils and adenoids out and tubes put into her ears. She was so good about it all. I would have been complaining for days, but here she is day two being a silly monkey. He said her mouth hurt and she needed a band aide!

 By that afternoon she was skateboarding in the hallway!

 I got to spend lots of time being Auntie which is always my favorite part of going home. Cami can always use the help and I sure do love those kids. I took Camden to a friend's birthday party and learned very quickly that 6 year olds in a small space are SCARY! 

Mom, Dad, and I had date night to go see The Fast and the Furious! Who doesn't love Sexy Paul Walker and fast cars??? We also went to my favorite restaurant, Sea! The best Thai food ever! Can't get enough of their yellow curry. We also watched Taken 2 and The Impossible. 

Sunday was church time and apparently nap time for this old man! Somethings never change!

It's always never long enough, but it was nice to get to go home and relax. 

Sure lucky to have the family I have! they are so good to me!

A Day of Service

My stake had the opportunity to help another stake down in Salt Lake this weekend. This stake was in much need for some service. We kept hearing about this great service project that would be happening, but I had no idea how truly great it would be. 8am on Saturday morning my ward showed up to help the Arbor Spanish Speaking Branch. They are incredible people. They were so kind to all of us and you could tell how much they appreciated our hard work. I wish I had taken before and after pictures of some of the projects, but I was working and moving between houses so I didn't get a chance. We did yard work, planted flowers, mowed, built patios, fixed roofs, bathrooms, painted interiors, removed trash and old appliances, trimmed trees, etc. I was assigned to the "trashy" group as Jake called it. Brother Anderson, Jake, Patrick and I would go to each house and load up a trailer full of trash, weeds, dirt, appliances, etc. and then take them to the large dumpsters. We would often stop and help with random projects as well. This sounds like a simple job, but we did it from 8 am until 6pm. There was that much trash! We had a blast doing it though and in the end I was so grateful to have spent the day with those 3. 

No idea what this large chunk of cement was at one point, but we had to get rid of it. The boys went to town at breaking it down. At this house we fixed a leaking roof, painted 3 rooms, cleared out room for a garden, built a stone patio and walkway, planted flowers, mowed, cleaned out trash. We gave them a lawn mower as a gift and the older man said this was his first new law mower and was so grateful. As we left we saw them continue to work and clean and take pride in their "new" home.

 We cleared out a lot of green waste. This sometimes meant we had to break down the bigger tree branches before we could put them in the trailer.

 Brother Anderson, Patrick, & Jake (the trashy group). 

At the dump! We probably had too much fun at the dump. It was nice to laugh and throw things away hearing the breaking glass. We also saw a great fridge that someone had trashed with the food still in it! Classy!

Ashlee and Megan enjoying the much needed oranges. It rained all morning and at times got chilly. Oranges were a highlight that morning.

Beethoven! This dog was HUGE! Luckily stayed tied up the whole time we worked in the yard.

At one house we were working in the yard and one of our guys Carl who was in charge of the construction said, "Hey I need someone who isn't afraid of heights to go on the roof and in a tree!" I volunteered very quickly! He had me get on the garage roof and tear off shingles then cut back and trim a tree so that he could then get up there and lay down some new shingles. It was one of my favorite parts of the day. I love climbing things!

It was a long hard day of work, but so worth it! I needed to be there and to forget myself and just serve these wonderful people. I hope that we get a chance to do something this great and this big again. 

It's amazing how truly happy you can be when you forget yourself and just serve those around you.

Helpful Reminders

I love Pinterest for lots of reasons, but lately when I am having a hard time I click on my church board and read through some of the talks, quotes, thoughts, etc. It usually helps to calm me down. These two are ones that I keep reading over and over again. 

I need to be true to the faith that I do have and not focus so much on the faith that I feel I'm lacking. I need to remember to continually try and do the very best I can in that moment.

Sometimes you just have to keep pushing through all the crazy, hard, and overwhelming things to get to the really great things in life.

 

The Missing Mail Key

I live in a great 6 bedroom house! This also means there are 6 people living in this house...overwhelming at times. For the most part all has gone pretty smoothly with living in this house. No real major problems except for the neighborhood kids thinking it's fun to slash tires, flood our basement and break into our car (yes...all have happened and I live in Daybreak with at least 4 cops living around the corner.) 

Well recently our front door has been VERY difficult to lock. I'm surprised with how much we have left it unlocked that we haven't been robbed! It's that difficult. Then I went on vacation to sunny California. When I got back our mail key (we use to have 3...now we have 1) went missing and the back door suddenly wouldn't unlock. WEIRD! Well we haven't been able to check our mail in a month because we can't find the mail key and it's a long process to get a new key. Aka I need my rental contract and they won't email me a copy. 

Megan, my lovely roommate decided to try and fix the back door. While doing so she figured out that there was something GOLD stuck in the backdoor.... hmmm... GOLD??? Yes that would be our MAIL KEY STUCK IN THE BACK DOOR!!!! In case you were wondering, no your mail key doesn't work in your back door. The key was forced in there and then broken off. PERFECT! Megan being the handy lady she is youtubed some videos on how to get the key out. Well we tried that...no luck and actually broke the lock even more.... but we tried! Oh and in this process we decided to spray WD40 on the front lock and like magic it now works! 

Yesterday Megan and I went to Home Depot to get a new lock. We were worried that we might have to get a new key and then we would have to tell the landlord and really we are trying to avoid that at all costs. Well thank you Home Depot for having a special lock that you can just use your original house key on! WHOOT WHOOT! A little Christmas Miracle for us. Well we finally got home and started the process. We put it on wrong. Unscrewed it all. Put it all on again...put it on wrong again! Unscrewed it all and put it on AGAIN! Third time is the charm! Now we have a beautiful new lock with NO MAIL KEY STUCK IN IT! 

The funny part about all of this.... Megan and I did NOT put the mail key in the back door, nor did we break it off in the back door! No one yet will step forward and admit that they have done it so for now Megan and I have flipped the bill on this one. Oh the joys of living in a house with 6 people! The great news is that Megan and I are now Champs at locks and could start a side business!

Lock with key in it. Trying to get it out with a special tool. Took the lock off and still trying at it. New lock. Third time! FINISHED!

NOW ALL WE NEED IS A MAIL KEY!!!!